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  FrontPage98 Web Hosting

fpbox1.gif (5185 bytes)Congratulations, your account has been created on our FrontPage 98 Server.

You now have the ideal way to get your professional-quality Internet site up and running fast. Microsoft FrontPage 98 offers all the best new   Web technologies, plus powerful tools for all your Web creation and management tasks.

Commonly Asked Questions

Q: When I switch my existing BEST account to the FrontPage 98 server, will BEST move my files from the old account to the new FrontPage account?
A: No. You will have to make a backup of your web files from the old machine and publish them onto the new FrontPage account.

Q: Once I have switched to a FrontPage 98 account, how do I publish my web site?
A: You actually have two options. You can either publish your web site with the FrontPage Explorer, or by any common FTP client, such as  WS-FTP or Cute FTP.  Information on doing this can be found in the "Publishing With FrontPage", or "Publishing With FTP" sections below.

Q: I have published my site, but this page keeps coming up when I browse to my domain.
A: This page is displayed because the webserver cannot find another page to index in the 'public_html' directory of your account. If you uploaded your site as a subweb (ie. http://www.yourdomain.com/subweb), FrontPage will create a subdirectory in your public_html directory and upload the web there instead of replacing this document with your new index file. To replace this document, either upload a new 'default.htm' file to the <Root_Web> (ie. your 'public_html' directory) to replace this file, or create a new document in the <Root_web> and name it either 'index.htm', or 'index.html'.

Q: When I switch my existing BEST account to the FrontPage98 server, will anything in my settings change?
A:
Yes, your shell, mail, & ftp server will change to fpage2.ba.best.com. This changes where your email program receives incoming mail and where your files are stored on the Internet.

Q: I have a copy of FrontPage 97. Does BEST support it?
A: YES, The FrontPage 98 extensions are backwards compatible with FrontPage 97. This means that you can use FrontPage 97 to manage your website, but you will be unavailable to take advantage of the new FrontPage 98 features..

Q: I am trying to use the SSI Counter from http://www.best.com/faq/faq0015.html on my page, but it doesn't appear to be working.
A: The SSI counter does not work because it is actually a feature built into our proprietary webserver, and is not part of the standard SSI library for NCSA based webservers. Since the FrontPage machine is running on Apache, which is closely based on NCSA, this particular SSI will not work. In order to place a counter on your webpage, it is recommended to use either the built in Counter WebBot from FrontPage 98, or obtain a third party counter package such as the  "Cory Counter", or "WebCounter".

Q: What are all the _vti_* folders/directories and files in my public_html directory??
A: These files are actually part of the FrontPage98 Server Extensions for your account. These are required to be there in order for FrontPage to work. If for some reason any of these files/directories are deleted or corrupted, you must email the FrontPage Administrator at frontpage-admin@best.com to reinstall the server extensions for your account.

*NOTE:  Do Not Delete Any Of The Files Or Directories Listed Below From Your 'public_html' Directory!!!

Directory: Files:
/ .htaccess , _vti_inf.html , postinfo.html
/_private .htaccess
/_vti_bin .htaccess , fpcount.exe , shtml.exe
/_vti_bin/_vti_adm .htaccess , admin.exe
/_vti_bin/_vti_aut .htaccess , author.exe
/_vti_cnf .htaccess , postinfo.html
/_vti_log .htaccess
/_vti_pvt .htaccess , access.cnf , botinfs.cnf , bots.cnf , deptodoc.btr , doctodep.btr , frontpg.lck , linkinfo.cnf , service.cnf , service.grp , service.lck , service.pwd , services.cnf , structure.cnf , svcacl.cnf , writeto.cnf
/_vti_txt .htaccess
/cgi-bin .htaccess
/images  

Changes in Email

In Eudora Light/Pro, you will change your POP account setting to read: login@fpage2.ba.best.com
Replace 'login' with your login name. The login name for your BEST account is located on your account information form. More information on how to set up Eudora is located at http://support.best.com/email/eudora/eudora.html.

In Netscape Navigator/Communicator you will have to change your incoming, or POP3, setting to: fpage2.ba.best.com
More information on how to set up Netscape Navigator for mail is located at this http://support.best.com/netscape/netscape.html.

On all other mail programs, you will have to change your incoming mail server to fpage2.ba.best.com. You should read over the user documentation supplied for the mail program to find out where this is located.

Other Miscellaneous Changes

  1. You will need to use  fpage2.ba.best.com as the remote host when telneting to your shell account.
  2. You will need to change your FTP client's 'host' setting to fpage2.ba.best.com to ftp to your account.

Publishing With FrontPage

To do this requires that you have an Internet connection. To start out, open up the FrontPage Explorer with your current FrontPage Web loaded. Second, pull down the File menu and select 'Publish FrontPage Web'. The 'Destination Web Server or File Location:' should be set to your domain, in the form: www.yourdomain.com
Do not type a name into the 'Name of Destination FrontPage Web' unless you want to have a child Web. Refer to your FrontPage manual to see what a child Web is. Leave the name blank or type in <Root Web>, then click the OK button. At this point, you will be required to enter your (login)Name and Password. The password you should enter here is the same password you use to check your email. If you have problems doing this, write email to frontpage-admin@best.com.

Publishing With FTP

To publish your Web using FTP, you should read the BEST FAQ 'Configuring FTP Programs'. There is also an 'Easy File Uploader' that we recommend to our Netscape users.

Q: What about questions regarding how to set up Bot components, or other forms-related questions? CGI support?
A: CGI's that work in a UNIX environment will work on the FrontPage server. If your CGI doesn't work, please see the Top 14 Reasons Why your CGI Script Isn't Working page in the FAQ. BEST Technical Support does not support CGI scripting, and can only point you back to the FAQ page. As for Bot components, the BEST FrontPage server is compatible with the FrontPage 98 server extensions. All other questions regarding FrontPage's Bot components should be directed to Microsoft's tech support.

(c) Copyright 1996-97 Best Internet Communications

Best Internet Communications does not assume responsibility for the validity of the information contained within this document. While we try to keep all information we make available current, because of the nature of the Internet, sites change and information becomes old rapidly.

webadmin@best.com